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First Edition (SD, NAP). The Lonely Crowd, 'a landmark study of American character', is considered by many to be the most influential book of the twentieth century. This is the genuine First Edition with '1950' on both the title page and the copyright page. 'In 1950, Yale University Press printed 3,000 copies of The Lonely Crowd, only to have to order thirteen additional printings before the book appeared in an abridged version as one of the first 'quality paperbacks' in the Anchor Books series, where it became an even greater success. I've rated this book Very Good. You can see the covers in the photographs. They are very clean. There are a few little white spots on the spine. The edges are in very good shape, just a a few tiny areas of fading of the green on the front bottom edge. All four corners have small, smooth spots of rubbing. There is also a little rubbing and crinkling at the spine ends, the top one seems like it has one teeny tiny tear. The page edges look very good. The book is solidly bound from cover to cover with nicely tight pages throughout and nicely tight covers as well. The pages are exceptionally clean. Scrolling through, I didn't see any soiling. That's also the case for the white inside covers and end papers. I'm also not finding any creasing. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments of any kind. And no one has written their name or anything else anywhere. The dust jacket is in decent condition. I've had it in a fitted protective cover for as long as I've owned the book which goes back a good number of years. It is pretty clean. There are a couple spots of soiling on the rear cover. As you can see there are fairly small losses, one at the front bottom corner, one at the top edge of the spine and one at the bottom edge of the spine. There's also a small scuff at the front top corner. The flaps are in decent shape. There is a small, thin tear of the top edge of the front flap, not reaching the print. The front bottom corner is clipped. That's where the price was on this jacket. The sociologist Irving Louis Horowitz wrote that The Lonely Crowd was the most influential and widely read mid-century work of social and cultural criticism. It catapulted Riesman onto the cover of Time magazine in 1954, the first social scientist so honored. 'Writing in the post?World War II period, Riesman sought to understand what kinds of character structures were being encouraged by the social institutions of modern society, including capitalist corporations, political institutions, and the mass media. He proposed three different character types. The tradition-directed type was the product of unchanging societies in which social patterns were rooted in the past. The traditional character was rigid, insular, and not open to innovation. The development of industrial society, however, required a new character type. The 19th century saw the rise of what Riesman called the inner-directed type. This character received its essential structure in its youth, through strong family and community socialization. Unlike the traditional type, the inner-directed person could change and develop, but only following the direction of his or her inner gyroscope, whose essential pattern had been determined in youth. Riesman argued that in the mid-20th century the inner-directed type was being replaced by a new character type. Modern organizations demanded people who took their cues from what other people expected of them. These other-directed individuals used their social radar, rather than an inner gyroscope, to guide their values and actions. They preferred to be loved rather than esteemed. Their character was not shaped primarily by family or religion, but rather was strongly influenced by peer culture and the mass media.' Professor Riesman urged Americans to find 'the nerve to be oneself when that self is not approved of by the dominant ethic of a society.'. Seller Inventory # 001549
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